After yesterday’s mix of sun and cloud, today would turn out to be mainly sunny, but a little bit windy.  The plan for today was to leisurely enjoy Banff as we rest from the hike the day before.

Every year in Banff, we spend part of a day at the Willow Stream Spa at the hotel, and we had reservations for today.  After breakfast at the hotel, we checked into the spa for our treatments, and spent some time enjoying the relaxing water features before going into town to explore.

Shortly before leaving for our trip, Nadine and I watched the TV Show Burger Wars Banff.  We set out for the saltlik Steakhouse to try the winning burger from the show.

And here it is…

After a nice lunch, we explored the town to do some souvenir shopping.  Shown below is the famous Banff Avenue.

We stopped by the Banff Park Museum, which we hadn’t visited yet.  Unfortunately, it was just closing for the day, so we will have to try again tomorrow.  Instead, we walked along the river a bit before returning to the hotel for dinner (a light dinner–the burger at lunch was very filling).

Heading back to the hotel was a busy drive, and we got to experience rush-hour like traffic in the mountains.  I suppose that was to be expected since it was the Sunday of a long weekend.  Here is a shot of the traffic behind us on Spray Avenue as we make our way back to the Banff Springs Hotel.  I gather many weekend visitors who aren’t even staying at the Banff Springs Hotel drive out to see it.

We did, however, have a bit of entertainment on our drive back.  Below is a picture of an elk we saw grazing on someone’s front lawn.

Walking around back at the hotel, there apparently was a meeting of Porshe owners!  I don’t know where the hotel valet parked our rental Jeep, but it apparently isn’t among this group of fine cars.

Nadine and I returned to the Willow Stream Spa to soak for another hour or two before bedtime.